I wish the association luck in mounting a successful obesity-education campaign. The success of countless such public health campaigns over the past 20 years can be judged by our current soaring obesity rates.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, today's children will have shorter life spans than their parents because of obesity and related illnesses. Taxing soft drinks, the largest source of discretionary calories in the American diet, is controversial and could prove unsuccessful.

But giving our children those years back calls for discussion, debate and action - not another educational campaign, this one funded by the very industry at the heart of the controversy.

Bullying decrees

From the managing and policing of garbage to crackdowns on shopping-bag usage, soda consumption and other personal habits, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and most members of this Board of Supervisors are engaging in the most extreme and draconian Big Brother government in history.

This unreasonable gang has rendered San Francisco an unlivable city with harassment, intimidation, fines, taxes and an endless array of pretexts to stick it to the majority of citizens, and force an immediate and radical form of communalist social engineering.

Toward what? This regime, and every one of its intrusive, bullying decrees, should all be thrown out.

ALAN AIN

San Francisco

Good old taxes

As a lapsed Republican, I, too, say "no new taxes." What I propose is going back to the old taxes - pre-Proposition 13, pre-Reagan tax cuts. In those days, we had excellent schools, good roads, effective social services and strong infrastructure. Back to the future, I say.

Banker bandits

Re: "Loan terms may multiply defaults," (Sept. 20): Grifters could not have set a better trap. Mortgage vehicles such as adjustable-rate mortgages are unscrupulous venues for those deregulated pirates we call banks to steal both our savings and our homes. These heists seem a consequence for decades of social Darwinism run riot.

Stripped of regulations, adjustable-rate mortgages morphed into lethal weapons of mass destruction that now threaten our communities more than any terrorist ever could. And we are all on our own in a constricting market economy that offers limited employment, less access to credit, and fewer opportunities to grow and earn.

It's unfortunate the we cannot call the Department of Homeland Security and report this ticking time bomb as a credible threat - at least they have the funding our threatened communities truly need.

We used to be a nation of laws. Without compassionate regulations and comprehensive laws, we are obviously defenseless against bankers, insurance companies and other criminals.

Parks, not tour buses

Why is the San Francisco Planning Department wasting its precious time and funding supporting an eco-twit concept such as Pavement to Parks ("Turning odd places into public art spaces," Sept. 18) when pollution- and congestion-causing double-decker tour buses are allowed to roar through our mostly residential North Beach neighborhoods without a peep from the department?

We already have an underutilized park in North Beach, the bocce ball park. Sadly, most of the possible players have long gone to their heavenly reward. The bocce ball court should be refigured for the disabled, seniors, toddlers and parents.

And as for those eco-twits making instant parks, why not consider leafleting tour buses and asking them politely not to tour through our neighborhood?

And why is North Beach usually targeted for these silly events - why not Bayview-Hunters Point or the avenues?

These eco-stunt events conveniently overlook the fact that 15 percent of San Francisco residents are disabled and cannot access their twee events. They need a car or van or some help to get around. Able-bodied-only access is not good planning.

Afghanistan: Is it our war?

Your Sept. 22 editorial on Afghanistan stated that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recent report answered many lingering questions. Namely, that the Karzai government is corrupt and ineffective, that the Taliban control vast amounts of the country and that U.S. and NATO forces are going about the war all wrong.

However, the question that remains unanswered - in fact, it is rarely asked - is this: Once a "victory" is attained and U.S. troops head home, won't the corruption, the Taliban, the opium crops and the suppression of women's rights slowly and surely return? Of course they will.

To paraphrase the wise, Vietnam-era words of Pete Seeger, "When will we ever learn?"

JIM WOOD

Tiburon

Stay the course

This is no time to go soft in Afghanistan simply because the work has become hard as many of California's elected leaders seem to suggest ("Call for troops gives Obama tough choices," Sept. 22).

Rather than shrinking away from our responsibility and abandoning 30 million men, women and children who desperately want a better life, it's time our nation's leaders show the resolve and tenacity that defines the American spirit, even while European leaders wilt and Asian powers look the other way.